


in the sweet heart of summer

by lost_n_stereo



Series: in the sweet heart of sumer [1]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, F/M, camp counselors, mild swearing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-12 18:34:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19234786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lost_n_stereo/pseuds/lost_n_stereo
Summary: Call him weird but he was always the kind of kid that genuinely liked school. Learning to him was fun but it was also nice to have structure. His home life wasn’t the greatest, and being the oldest child and having a single mom that worked two jobs meant that his summer vacation was usually spent babysitting and working odd jobs to bring in extra money. Octavia slept in almost every day and they would bum around their small town, stopping for ice cream or swimming at the public pool. On the nights Octavia would have sleepovers at her friend’s house Bellamy would join his group of friends as they drank beer by the railroad tracks that ran the length around the entire town.That’s what he was imagining this summer would be, just a repeat of every summer he’s had for the last eighteen years. His sister just turned thirteen though and the only thing on her mind has been summer camp.Modern Summer Camp AU





	in the sweet heart of summer

He’s never been a fan of summer vacation.

Call him weird but he was always the kind of kid that genuinely liked school. Learning to him was fun but it was also nice to have structure. His home life wasn’t the greatest, and being the oldest child and having a single mom that worked two jobs meant that his summer vacation was usually spent babysitting and working odd jobs to bring in extra money. Octavia slept in almost every day and they would bum around their small town, stopping for ice cream or swimming at the public pool. On the nights Octavia would have sleepovers at her friend’s house Bellamy would join his group of friends as they drank beer by the railroad tracks that ran the length around the entire town.

That’s what he was imagining this summer would be, just a repeat of every summer he’s had for the last eighteen years. His sister just turned thirteen though and the only thing on her mind has been summer camp.

“It’s expensive,” his mom tells him one night in May. School lets out in just under two weeks and he knows his mom can’t afford a camp that lasts almost two months long. “She’s going to be devastated.”

“Let me talk to Jasper. Maybe he knows a way to get her into the camp he works at every summer.”

His mom’s eyes light up. “Really?”

Bellamy shrugs. “It doesn’t hurt to ask.”

“Thank you, Bell. Even if he could just get us a discount, maybe between the two of us we could pull it off.”

As soon as she walks out of the kitchen, dropping a kiss on his head as she leaves, he pulls out his cell and thumbs in a text to his best friend.

_Any chance you know how to get a spot for O in your summer camp that won’t cost us an arm and a leg?_

His phone rings, just like he knew that it would because Jasper hates talking on the phone.

“Dude,” is all his best friend says and Bellamy laughs. “If you want to get Octavia into this camp all you need to do is apply to be a camp counselor. Younger siblings of counselors stay for free _and_ you get paid.”

“No shit?” He’s not the most outdoorsy person in the world but he knows enough to probably teach some little kids how to do basic wilderness things.

“None to be given, my friend. I’ll email you the link to apply.”

Then Jasper hangs up without another word and Bellamy chuckles, waits for the email to come through and applies for the job that might make his sister’s summer wish come true.

***

“Oh. My. God.”

Bellamy shushes Octavia. “O, you need to chill.”

His sister is practically jumping up and down in her seat as the school bus they are on drives under the Forest Acres Summer Camp sign. Jasper is sitting in the seat in front of him, with their mutual friend Harper, and he knows at least fix or six other counselors from their high school.

Jasper turns around and rests his arms on the back of his bench seat. “Leave her alone, Blake. She’s just excited for all the fresh air and activities.”

Bellamy rolls his eyes, mostly because he knows full well that Jasper only comes to work at this camp so he can see his summer girlfriend Raven. Plus he knows that the money isn’t bad. He’ll make almost two grand this summer and it’s going to help a lot with his moving expenses for college.

The drive to the center of camp takes a little less than ten minutes. There are trees lining both sides of the long road, and he’s assuming that’s where the camp gets its name. The camp is almost four hours from home and it’s the first time that Octavia has ever stayed anywhere without their mom for longer than a night or two. He’s glad he’ll be around if she starts to get homesick.

“What kind of stuff are we going to be doing?” Octavia asks and Jasper starts ticking off items like he has the entire summer activity catalog memorized. And hell, maybe he does. Jasper’s been coming to this summer camp since he was seven so he has a solid ten years of Forest Acres experience.

“And they will group you into cabins,” Jasper is telling her. “Each counselor is assigned a cabin and every counselor will have different things for you to do too.”

“Can Bellamy be my counselor?”

Jasper shakes his head. “Sorry, kid. Girls get girls, boys get boys. But you’ll see him a lot. We do movie nights and camp outs and we all eat together for breakfast, lunch and dinner.”

“Cool,” Octavia says, looking out the window as giant green pine trees pass by her. “This summer is going to be so awesome.”

Bellamy smiles and ruffles her hair, sits back in his seat until the bus pulls to a stop in front of a long red building not dissimilar to a barn.

“That’s the main office,” Jasper tells them, gathering his stuff before standing up and turning to Bellamy. “That’s where we’ll get our cabin assignments and meet all the other counselors.”

Bellamy punches him lightly on the arm. “Bet you’re excited to see your girlfriend,” he teases and Jasper flips him off.

“Don’t knock summer love, bro. It can be pretty fun.” Jasper raises his eyebrows suggestively and Bellamy rolls his eyes.

“Dude, there are kids here. Keep it in your pants.”

Bellamy grabs their backpacks and follows Jasper and Harper, who’s bouncing on her heels to get out of the bus.

“Speaking of summer love,” Jasper whispers and Bellamy watches as she practically jumps off the bus and into the arms of a guy that looks around their age. “That’s Monty Green. He goes to the same school as Raven.”

Bellamy nods and looks around. “And where is Raven? I’m honestly starting to wonder if you made her up.” Octavia snickers from beside him and Jasper shoots them both dirty looks.

“She’s over there,” Jasper says, trying to point discreetly to where two girls are standing side by side holding clipboards. “The blonde next to her is new, though. I don’t know her.”

Bellamy looks at the girl, who’s got her long blonde hair tied up in a high ponytail with loose curls falling out naturally. He’s seen girls at his school try for the same look but it always comes across like they are trying too hard. This girl is cute as hell with legs for days despite not being very tall at all, lean and tan in her short red athletic shorts.

“Let’s go,” Jasper says to Bellamy before turning to his sister. “O, see that group of girls your age over there? That’s where you should be.”

Octavia looks up at Bellamy and for the first time he can see panic rising up in her eyes. He bends down so he’s eye level with her. “I’m going to be right here, okay? Don’t forget, we came here so you can have fun.”

She bites down on her lip before standing up straight and he can see his badass little sister coming back. “You’re right, Bell. I totally got this. Later, losers.”

Jasper snorts. “She’s one of a kind.” Raven waves over to them and Jasper elbows him. “Move your ass, Blake.”

Raven is pretty, definitely pretty enough to make Jasper an idiot ten months out of every year. But the girl standing next to her is a stunner, even more so up close.

Jasper and Raven hug, leaving Bellamy and the unnamed girl standing awkwardly while the couple giggles and speak quietly beside them.

“I’m Bellamy Blake,” he says, deciding to break the silence and she looks relieved.

“Clarke Griffin.” She holds up her clipboard. “I can help you sign in if you’re a first-timer like me.”

“Yeah, that’d be great.” Bellamy turns to let his friend know that he’s taking off but Jasper just waves him off without even looking at him. Clarke laughs when Bellamy leans over and whispers, “I’d be mad but he hasn’t shut up about her since September.”

“That’s actually kind of sweet,” she says as they weave their way through groups of kids. Bellamy looks for Octavia and sees her laughing with a group of girls. Clarke follows his line of sight. “Little sister?”

He smiles. “Yeah. She’s the reason I’m here actually. I only applied for the job so she could get in.”

“That’s also kind of sweet.” When he looks down she’s blushing, pretty pink hitting her cheeks like she’s embarrassed that she said what she did. “So this is the main office…”

Bellamy follows her into the building and is hit with a sudden blast of air conditioning. “Jesus, it’s freezing in here.”

Clarke laughs. “Yeah, the camp director hates the heat. You’d think that someone that hates the heat wouldn’t work at a summer camp, right?”

She walks him to the front desk, which looks a lot like the front office of a school. There’s an older redheaded woman behind the desk that introduces herself as Kathy, and she helps him sign in and lets him know he’ll be the counselor for Cabin B4.

Clarke waits for him, even though she doesn’t have to, and when he heads back to her with his own clipboard in hand she asks him what cabin he got.

“How funny! I have Cabin G4. And look,” she says tilting her clipboard so he can read it. “Octavia Blake. Is that your sister?”

“Yeah, it is.” He’s happy that Octavia is with Clarke, not just because he happens to think she’s pretty fucking cute but also because he can tell that she’s a good person. “I’m glad she’ll have you looking after her.”

Bellamy bites back a smile when her cheeks flush pink. “I’ll make sure she has a good summer.”

He can’t help but think this summer is going to be good for him too.

***

The first few days of camp are hectic.

He’s in charge of five campers, all between the ages of ten to thirteen. There are three cabins of boys in this age group so he gets together with the other two counselors to come up with activities for the campers to do on their downtime.

“What about a fishing trip? There’s a bigger lake not far, I’m sure we could secure two of the vans for the day.”

Bellamy nods at Monty, who he’s gotten to know pretty well over the last week. “Yeah, I think they’d like that. Murphy, any ideas?”

John Murphy, who seems like he’s here for the money and probably not much else, shrugs. “Shooting practice?”

Bellamy snorts. “I don’t know if teaching a bunch of preteens how to shoot guns is a good idea.”

“I mean, like…bows and arrows or whatever.” 

“Archery?” Bellamy looks over to Monty, who nods like it’s not a bad idea. “Okay, yeah. They’d probably like that.”

“We should be teaching these kids useful life skills,” Murphy says. “Like how to throw knives and pick up chicks.”

Monty rolls his eyes. “We’re not here to help them hook up, Murphy. They’re kids.”

“They’re almost teens,” Murphy says. “Why not have like…fuck I don’t know. A dance or something?”

Bellamy and Monty look at each other, both visibly shocked at the idea. “That’s…actually a really great idea, Murphy.”

“Yeah,” Monty agrees. “We could ask for the rec hall for the night. Maybe we could ask one of the older campers to DJ?”

Bellamy starts jotting down notes. “I’ll talk to Clarke about it and have her talk to the other counselors.” He nods to the guys as he stands up to leave their cabin. “Good ideas, Murphy.”

“Yeah, whatever.”

It’s nearing nine o’clock, thirty minutes past lights out, so he makes his way to the cabin Clarke shares with three other counselors and knocks on the door.

Raven answers, her smile warm but tired, and he can only imagine how demanding taking care of a bunch of preteen girls must be. “Looking for Clarke?”

“Um…yeah.”

He doesn’t blush, exactly, but he does feel like his skin is a little hotter. It’s not even that he and Clarke have spent a lot of time together since coming here. It’s been a few smiles across the mess hall and brief hellos here and there.  

Raven gives him this knowing smile and turns her head over her shoulder. “Griff, there’s someone here to see you.”

Clarke appears a minute later in a red and white striped shirt and a pair of cut off jean shorts. Her hair is up in a messy bun and her cheeks are tinted pink from too much sun.

“Hi,” she says brightly. “What’s up?”

Raven is still standing there, an eyebrow raised and her hip popped out, and Bellamy chuckles. “Do you wanna go for a walk?”

“Yeah, for sure. Let me just grab my shoes.”

She emerges from the cabin with a small bottle in her hand. “Close your eyes,” she says and he does without asking why. He feels a mist on his face and arms and when he opens his eyes she’s spraying it on herself. “The bugs out here are awful. This bug spray is the best on the market.”

It smells expensive, not like the cheap three dollar bottles his mom buys at the grocery store. It occurs to him then that Clarke probably doesn’t need the money she’ll be making this summer, which means she’s here because she genuinely wants to be.

“Thanks,” he says and nods towards the lake that sits in the center of the camp. “Want to head that way?”

She agrees and they set off towards the trail that leads around the lake. The camp is still alive with activity, counselors laughing around the campfire and couples sneaking off into the woods to fool around.

“Murphy came up with a good idea,” Bellamy starts and Clarke snickers.

“I find that hard to believe.”

He laughs out loud. “That’s fair. But he thinks our cabins should have a dance. We were thinking just our cabins and the girls that are the same age.”

“Wow, that actually is a good idea.”

“Trust me, we were as shocked as you are.”

They make their way towards the lake and sit on a bench that looks out over the still water. It’s quieter here, just the sounds of crickets and rustling leaves from the light breeze blowing around them.

“This place is so beautiful,” she says quietly. “Living in the city you don’t get this kind of silence.”

“Where are you from?”

“Boston, originally. We moved to North Carolina last year and when I met Raven at school she told me about this place. She made it sound magical.”

An idea occurs to him and he grins to himself before standing up. “I want to show you something.”

He holds out his hand and she takes it. “Where are we going?”

“Be patient.”

There’s a small trail that leads through the trees, he found it on a nature walk he took his campers on a couple of days ago, and it leads to a clearing that’s only twenty feet or so wide.

“Close your eyes,” he tells her right before they hit it and he’s pleased when she does.

“You’re not going to kill me are you?” she jokes and he snickers. “I’ve seen enough summer camp horror movies to know that’s a real possibility.”

“Would I tell you if that was my plan?”

“Good point.”

When they make it to the clearing he stops and moves her so she’s in front of him. “Open your eyes.”

Her sharp intake of breath makes him smile. “Oh my gosh, Bellamy.”

The clearing is full of fireflies, just as he expected it to be. It’s the perfect temperature for them here and they are easy to see without a ton of trees in the way.

“How’s this for magical?”

Clarke’s hand is still in his as her eyes roam over every inch of the clearing. “This is everything.” She turns around suddenly and throws her arms around his neck. “Thank you for bringing me here.”

There are few moments in your life that you know it’s a perfect moment in time when you’re in it. Sometimes these moments pass you by and years later you look back at them and think, damn if only I would have known then what I know now. He’ll be damned if he lets one of those moments pass him by.

When she pulls away she’s still close, her lips a hairbreadth away from his, and when he bends down to kiss her everything else falls away. Her lips are pillow soft against his and he doesn’t try anything more, just kisses her softly surrounded by the fireflies dancing around them.

“This is a perfect moment,” she whispers against his lips, saying out loud the words he was just thinking in his head, and he grins.

“It won’t be the last,” he promises her. “It’s going to be a long summer.”


End file.
